For the first time since sales began nearly 100 years ago, Girl Scouts of the USA will allow its young cookie-selling entrepreneurs to sell their wares online.

Members of the Girl Scouts Louisiana East council will be among the group of Girl Scouts embracing the new Digital Cookie platform, with the local sale beginning Jan. 16.

“Through Digital Cookie, we are bringing the Girl Scout Cookie Program fully into the 21st century,” said Alisha Moore, vice president of sales at Girl Scouts Louisiana East, which covers 23 parishes of southeast Louisiana. “Digital Cookie tailors the traditional Girl Scout Cookie Program to fit the modern world, helping give more girls an important foundation in technology.”

Moore said the Digital Cookie program is intended to enhance, not replace, traditional sales made door-to-door or during booth sales.

The new platform will allow local Girl Scouts to market their online cookie businesses by inviting customers to visit their personalized cookie websites through a link sent via email. Customers who buy cookies from girls will be able to have their order processed, paid for and confirmed at point of sale, with the option of having cookies shipped directly to them or delivered by the Girl Scout.

Moore sees Digital Cookie as advantageous to both girls and customers, because in addition to giving girls a new sales channel, it gives customers who may not have had access to Girl Scouts and their cookies the opportunity to order cookies.

The local sale runs from Jan. 16 to March 15, and the council will be offering two new cookies, including a gluten-free cookie at $5 a box, $1 more than the other eight varieties, selling at $4 a box.

Last year, southeast Louisiana Girl Scouts sold over 1 million boxes of cookies with 211 girls selling at least 500 boxes each.

All proceeds remain within the council’s jurisdiction, funding troop activities with the remainder helping the council to maintain properties, train and recruit volunteers, and support council initiatives.

“By participating in the Cookie Program, girls develop important life skills such as goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics,” Moore said.

Girl Scouts Louisiana East serves girls 5 to 17 in the parishes of Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Jefferson, Lafourche, Livingston, Orleans, Plaquemines, Pointe Coupee, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. James, St. John, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne, Washington, West Baton Rouge and West Feliciana.

For information about Girl Scouts, call the council office in Baton Rouge at (225) 927-8946 or visit www.gsle.org.